homage (as a way of honoring and being respectful of the original) even through direct copying?

transformative (in the traditional copyright sense) as building upon the original to create new meaning?

or copying as a means of economically exploiting copyrighted works?

This first post in a series about the difficulties in making this distinction focuses on three different examples of how difficult it is to carefully draw these lines, focusing on Japanese pop star Namie Amuro’s Copy That (official Vidal Sassoon music video-ish commercial above), and later posts will focus on Glee’s Madonna and Lady Gaga episodes, and Christina Aguilera’s Not Myself Tonight video (and dance responses), and other similar situations.

There was also no mention of the subcultural aspects of Japanese fashion that have found success outside of Japan, including anime fans, especially through cosplay — and the San Francisco branches of the Gothic Lolita store, Baby, the Stars Shine Bright and the Japanese store, Black Peace Now.

And considering that NYC’s FIT recently had the Gothic: Dark Glamour exhibition, including panels and fashion from Japanese subculture, this omission from the NYTimes article is striking.

However, the article did include mentions of the Lolita fashion trend thusly:

(Although Lolita style is a reference to the Vladimir Nabokov novel “Lolita,” its look is more covered-up Victorian schoolgirl than skin-baring teenage vixen.)

— and yes, the original was in parentheses.

I’m not sure why in an article about the Japanese fashion trends this description of the Lolita fashion style was viewed as a sufficient description — girly steampunk would have been more appropriate, but that is likely still too subcultural.

On the other hand, Jezebel recently highlighted the licensed manhwa version of Gossip Girl. Interestingly, even the publisher decided to describe this graphic novel / comic by a Korean artist as manga (the term for this art literature from Japan) rather than manhwa (for Korean litart). Considering the growing influence of hallyu as the appropriate term for Korean pop culture, and the growing understanding about the difference between graphic novels/comics from Japan and Korea, I’m really surprised by the lack of distinction. Blair would be highly disappointed!

Interestingly, both books are written by Western female journalists that are not of Asian descent. Also, both are written primarily around interviews with individual women, using their experiences to explore larger social phenomena. Both books touch upon fandom issues, but this is not their primary focus.

The most valuable aspect of The Asian Mystique from a pop culture studies perspective is a multiple chapter analysis of stereotypes used in Western media of Asians and Asian-Americans. Prasso discusses how media stereotypes are based in a binary dichotomy in two ways — first, the stereotypes vary based on gender, and second, Asian women are seen as either submissive and desirable (“China Doll”/Vixen) or as dominant and therefore to be feared (“Dragon Lady”). This section would be perfect for a film/television or ethnic studies class.

Kickboxing Geishas does discuss Japanese female fashion, including Harajuku, Lolita, and Gothic Lolita. (Interestingly, though Chambers is an African-American woman, she never mentions the racialized aspects of yamamba in her discussion of this fashion/social trend).

Kickboxing Geishas also discusses the economic and social impact of teenage girls and their style:

‘Joshi kosei [teenage girls] are voracious shoppers with a quirky eye for fashion and an uncanny ability to start trends.’

Although there are broad groupings among …Japan’s contemporary costume culture …– kawaii, or the culture of cuteness; gothic; Lolita, etc. — the young women (and some men) who embody these street styles thrive on their individuality. …I believe the costuming of today’s Japanese young women reveals, in a powerful way, how for many young Japanese females, Japan is a hard place to become a grown woman.

[Yasuko Nakamura] recently published a book, The Uchira and Osoro Generation: Unadorned High School Girls of Tokyo. The Uchira in the title refers to the way Shibuya’s masses of teenage girls like to refer to themselves–a posse called “us.” Osoro is short for osoroi meaning that the girls like to dress the same. Currently eight thousand of these girls are on [her company’s] payroll [;] companies rely on her and her teen experts to help develop products such as soft drinks and cosmetics.

The Asian Mystique mentions “ladies comics”/manga and their role as peer sex education:

Unlike in the West where [teen] girls pass around steamy romance novels between friends [Peyton Place to V.C. Andrews to Twilight] or watch teen dating shows [90201 of yore and now], Japanese girls read [explicit] manga.

One of the most interesting side notes in Kickboxing Geishas involves Bizet’s Carmen, which has been reinterpreted once again, this time in a Japanese ballet where the action takes place within a Japanese business where Carmen is an “office lady” (secretary/tea server) and Jose is the corporation’s security guard. (Someone should write a book on the incredible resonance of Carmen cross-culturally!)

Both books have so much more than is truly in the scope of this blog, with analysis of the real world day-to-day sexism that women face. The Asian Mystique is especially recommended for its in-depth analysis of many issues, including the sex industry throughout Asia.

“Love the culture? Write a song about it. Then, use it to sell a handbag. “

Susan Scafidi’s summary of Gwen Stefani’s post-No Doubt career at Counterfeit Chic is incisive precisely because the lack of originality shown. Gwen’s co-optation (or misappropriation) of Japanese style, specifically the street styles of the Harajuku district of Tokyo, may be a specific example of the use of another culture’s cues and objects to make money for one’s self but not the originating culture. In music, many have come before — from Elvis to Madonna.

Turn you and your friends into Gwen and her Harajuku Girls. Customize their eye and hair color, even their stage wardrobe, before printing out the dolls and bringing them to life. You can even print out your own paper dolls to decorate your room or greeting cards featuring your Harajuku creation. (emphasis added — and it is interesting to note thatthe skin color can be changed, but not the features)

What? There are already living Harajuku girls and boys (as in fromHarajuku & in the style)! This subculture is based on a high degree of gothy weirdness combined with the Japanese penchant for cuteness (called kawaii). Now you can now pretend to be someone (via a paper doll) who is a stand-in for someone (Gwen or her version of Harajuku girls) who is pretending to be/an homage to/stealing the cultural capital (choose one!) of actual people! Fun!

These paper dolls are part of a system where the original creators (those in Harajuku) receive no intellectual property in their culture (and the $$$ that flows from it), yet Gwen can.

Gwen has appropriated the Harajuku look — re-naming her backup dancers as a group as the Harajuku Girls & she has a fashion label called Harajuku Lovers (and a tour named after the label). There are live trademarks in the United States for Harajuku Lovers & Harajuku Lovers A Fatal Attraction to Cuteness. Yet I’m sure that when Stefani used a sample of “The Lonely Goatherd” from the musical The Sound of Music by Rodgers and Hammerstein for her song “Wind it Up,” contracts were signed and money was exchanged. And Gwen will defend her trademarks based on Harajuku-style — as shown in a recent Forever 21 lawsuit.

But those trademarks — and the rest of her “cutting-edge” image are built on the cultural production of others — the actual Harajuku girls — and boys — who use their amazing skills to create bizarre/cute outfits.

Gwen Stefani wants you to know that she just oozes creativity from every pore. “People think you can turn creativity on and off, but it’s not like that,” the singer-cum-designer declares while sashaying through a cloud of fluttering photographs. “It just kind of comes out, a mashup of all these things you collect in your mind.”

Creativity? When Bjork, for example, says she likes to collect the sounds of nature, she then does new and unique things with them — she doesn’t call it Wind through Pines ™ and slap her name on it. Mashups, fanfic, and other examples of remix culture do something new, they don’t attempt to serve as a replacement for the original, and they also have clear norms of attribution — something sorely lacking from Gwen’s appropriative behavior. I’m not sure what is “creative” about taking ownership through intellectual property laws of cultural productivity by others. After all, she’s not the first to do that either.

For more about Harajuku (and Japanese street) style, I recommend (list as of 11/08):